MetaFilter posts tagged with alcoholismhttp://www.metafilter.com/tags/alcoholism
Posts tagged with 'alcoholism' at MetaFilter.Tue, 01 Nov 2016 06:16:23 -0800Tue, 01 Nov 2016 06:16:23 -0800en-ushttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss60The Writer Who Was Too Strong to Livehttp://www.metafilter.com/163205/The%2DWriter%2DWho%2DWas%2DToo%2DStrong%2Dto%2DLive
<a href="http://deadspin.com/the-writer-who-was-too-strong-to-live-1785661187">Jennifer Frey drank herself to death.</a> "Frey was a can't miss kid in sportswriting in the early 1990s. Just months out of Harvard, she was subjected to a high-profile episode of sexual harassment on the job. In response, Frey spoke forcibly and with righteousness for her gender and her profession in print and on national television as the controversy over women in locker rooms crested." Also from the piece: "Pollock recalls introducing Frey to another Times Herald writer at a lunch at the Beef n' Barrel, an Olean eatery. After the meal, the other writer told him, "That was the smartest person I've ever met."" tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.163205Tue, 01 Nov 2016 06:16:23 -0800mecran01Now that I'm sober, they look quite different.http://www.metafilter.com/162985/Now%2Dthat%2DIm%2Dsober%2Dthey%2Dlook%2Dquite%2Ddifferent
<a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/michelletea/a-walking-tour-of-the-places-where-i-hit-rock-bottom?utm_term=.ekQbj9xq8#.mvGwZ4A3l">A Walking Tour Of The Places Where I Hit Rock Bottom</a> by writer <a href="http://www.michelletea.com/">Michelle Tea</a> tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.162985Fri, 21 Oct 2016 08:11:11 -0800gwintBaclofen: the controversial pill that could 'cure' alcoholismhttp://www.metafilter.com/162367/Baclofen%2Dthe%2Dcontroversial%2Dpill%2Dthat%2Dcould%2Dcure%2Dalcoholism
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/16/baclofen-controversial-pill-cure-alcoholism">France is ground zero for clinical research on Baclofen, a drug said to eliminate alcohol cravings.</a> The medication will soon be more accessible than ever – but not everyone thinks that's a good thing. (slTheGrauniad) tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.162367Mon, 19 Sep 2016 08:26:16 -0800KittehSobriety, Wine O'Clock, and the 24-Hour Womanhttp://www.metafilter.com/161678/Sobriety%2DWine%2DOClock%2Dand%2Dthe%2D24%2DHour%2DWoman
"But knives and booze, yoga and booze, 13 mile runs and booze? What's next to be liquored up: CPR training? Puppy ballet class? (Not really a thing, but someone should get on it.) Is there nothing so inherently absorbing or high-stakes or pleasurable that we won't try to alter our natural response to it? Maybe women are so busy faking it — to be more like a man at work, more like a porn star in bed, more like 30 at 50 — that we don't trust our natural responses anymore. Maybe all that wine is an Instagram filter for our own lives, so we don't see how sallow and cracked they've become." <a href="https://medium.com/@kristicoulter/https-medium-com-kristicoulter-the-24-hour-woman-3425ca5be19f#.jvm4154op">Writer Kristi Coulter on making it to "the other side of the pool."</a> tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.161678Wed, 17 Aug 2016 07:03:24 -0800sallybrown"We don't know why it came to this."http://www.metafilter.com/158531/We%2Ddont%2Dknow%2Dwhy%2Dit%2Dcame%2Dto%2Dthis
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2016/04/08/we-dont-know-why-it-came-to-this/">White women between 25 and 55 have been dying at accelerating rates over the past decade, a spike in mortality not seen since the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. Why?</a> tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.158531Mon, 11 Apr 2016 09:58:58 -0800ShepherdThey battle forces of darkness none of us can see.http://www.metafilter.com/155276/They%2Dbattle%2Dforces%2Dof%2Ddarkness%2Dnone%2Dof%2Dus%2Dcan%2Dsee
"But at some point, my dad stepped into a phone booth and vowed to be more than the sum of his upbringing. He took on the monsters that followed him and declared war on the dysfunctional demons he carried. He chose to give his children the childhood he didn't have."
<a href="http://www.motherhoodandmore.com/2015/12/a-love-letter-to-the-cycle-breakers.html">A Love Letter to the Cycle Breakers</a>. [<em>TW: childhood abuse</em>] tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.155276Sat, 05 Dec 2015 10:38:00 -0800shiu mai babyTherapihkalhttp://www.metafilter.com/155041/Therapihkal
<blockquote><em>In the early 1960's, drugs like LSD and psilocybin found their way out of university labs and onto the street -- and their value as medicine was lost as their status as protest and party drugs emerged. Mass recreational use, conservative political forces and a continuing media frenzy ensured the vilification of hallucinogens – until drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms were completely outlawed in 1970. Serious medical research would not begin again until the early 21st century, four decades later.</em> </blockquote>
Turn on, tune in, and heal thyself - CBC's Ideas presents <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/high-culture-part-1-1.3280226">High Culture</a>, a 3-hour (<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/high-culture-part-2-1.3292940">2</a>--<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/high-culture-part-3-1.3331467">3</a>) series examining the use of psychedelics to curb anxiety, alcoholism, and depression. Related Websites:
<a href="http://www.maps.org/">(MAPS) Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies</a>
<a href="http://https//www.erowid.org/">EROWID - Documenting the Complex Relationships Between Humans and Psychoactives ​</a>
<a href="http://www.mapscanada.org/research/mdma/3-mdma-as-a-treatment-for-trauma.html">Treating PTSD with MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy</a>
<a href="http://www.maps.org/maps-media/media/5264-ucla-medical-researcher-studies-using-hallucinogenics,-ecstasy-to-treat-autism">UCLA Medical Researcher Studies Using Hallucinogenics, Ecstasy To Treat Autism (MAPS)</a>
<a href="http://www.dppp.uzh.ch/research/psychiatric/neuropsychopharma/brainimaging/heffter.html">Heffter Research Center - University of Zurich</a>
<a href="http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/r.carhart-harris/publications.html">Publications by Robin Carhart-Davis</a>
<a href="http://csp.org/psilocybin/">List of Johns Hopkins publications about Psilocybin Research </a>
<a href="http://www.bpru.org/cancer-studies/">Psilocybin Cancer Project - Johns Hopkins Medicine</a>
<a href="http://www.heffter.org/video.htm">Interviews with Psilocybin Cancer Patients</a>
<a href="http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxMidAtlantic-Roland-Griffith">TEDx Talk by Professor Roland Griffith</a>
<a href="http://www.nyucanceranxiety.org/">New York University Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study</a>
<a href="http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhbjKizniOU">Psychedelic Psychotherapy: Insights from 25 Years of Research - William Richards ​</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkcO_wJ9yKo">Professor David Nutt - The Inconvenient Truth About Drugs​</a>
<a href="http://reset.me/story/the-benefits-of-microdosing-with-lsd-and-psilocybin-mushrooms/">Benefits Of Microdosing With LSD And Psilocybin Mushrooms by Damon Orion</a> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.155041Thu, 26 Nov 2015 11:31:39 -0800mannequito"And I'm telling you that thing upstairs isn't my daughter."http://www.metafilter.com/154125/And%2DIm%2Dtelling%2Dyou%2Dthat%2Dthing%2Dupstairs%2Disnt%2Dmy%2Ddaughter
<a href="http://electricliterature.com/that-thing-a-true-story-based-on-the-exorcist/">That Thing: A True Story Based on The Exorcist</a> (Adam Sturtevant, <em>Electric Literature</em>) tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.154125Sun, 25 Oct 2015 08:41:48 -0800joseph conrad is fully awesome"Time to retire the 'firewater' fairytale"http://www.metafilter.com/153769/Time%2Dto%2Dretire%2Dthe%2Dfirewater%2Dfairytale
<blockquote>Rates of all types of addiction — not just alcohol — are elevated in aboriginal peoples around the world, not only in America. It's unlikely that these scattered groups randomly happen to share more vulnerability genes for addiction than any other similarly dispersed people. But what they clearly do have in common is an ongoing multi-generational experience of trauma.</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/2/9428659/firewater-racist-myth-alcoholism-native-americans">No, Native Americans aren't genetically more susceptible to alcoholism</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.153769Mon, 12 Oct 2015 12:44:46 -0800MartinWisse"The nights I can't remember are the nights I can never forget."http://www.metafilter.com/151058/The%2Dnights%2DI%2Dcant%2Dremember%2Dare%2Dthe%2Dnights%2DI%2Dcan%2Dnever%2Dforget
<blockquote>It's possible you don't know what I'm talking about. Maybe you're a moderate drinker who baby-sips two glasses of wine and leaves every party at a reasonable hour. Maybe you are one of those lucky people who can slurp your whisky all afternoon and never disappear. But if you're like me, you know the thunderbolt of waking up to discover a blank space where pivotal scenes should be. My evenings come with trapdoors.</blockquote>
An excerpt from <a href="http://sarahhepola.com/" title="Sarah Hepola: official site">Sarah Hepola</a>'s new <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1455554596/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/">memoir</a>: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/13/my-drinking-years-everyone-has-blackouts-dont-they" title="The Guardian: My drinking years: 'Everyone has blackouts, don't they?'">"Everyone has blackouts, don't they?"</a> Interviews with and essays about Sarah Hepola and the aforementioned memoir, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1455554596/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/"><em>Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget</em></a>:
<strong>The Atlantic</strong>: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/blackout-book-memoir-science-sarah-hepola/395909/" title="The Atlantic: Anatomy of a Blackout">Anatomy of a Blackout</a>
<blockquote>"What we consider to be consequences of drinking aren't always consequences to the drinkers," <abbr title="senior advisor to the director at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)">[Aaron] White</abbr> says. "[A blackout] can be considered a barometer for how drunk you got, so therefore you must have had a lot more fun."
There's a confusion here of what adventure is. Alcohol can fuel a sense of adventure, and make you feel like anything could happen. But a blackout is the reverse. Anything could have happened. "After a blackout, I would torture myself thinking of the awful things I might have said or done," Hepola writes. "My mind became an endless loop of what scared me the most."</blockquote>
<strong>The Rumpus</strong>: <a href="http://therumpus.net/2015/06/the-saturday-rumpus-interview-sarah-hepola/" title="The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Sarah Hepola">The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Sarah Hepola</a>
<blockquote>"It's a uniquely lacerating punishment to not know what you've done. Because it means you could have done anything. I didn't sleep well when I drank, so I often woke up at 5am, and I would lie in bed for hours torturing myself with what might have happened. "What might have happened" is a list you can build until the stars fall out of the sky. It didn't help that my past experience taught me my behavior in blackouts could be bizarre. Exhibitionist, aggressive, cruel. I didn't even have the dignity of assuring myself, "I would never do that," because I did quite a few things in a blackout that I would normally never do.
So yes, the shock of not knowing is unforgettable. <em>Where am I? What the hell happened?</em> But that sentence has a double meaning for me. Because I was prone to relapse and magical thinking, it's also a call to awareness. Never forget your own story."</blockquote>
<strong>The Dallas Observer</strong>: <a href="http://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/dallas-author-sarah-hepola-on-memoir-blackout-its-my-story-but-i-m-not-alone-7375814" title="The Dallas Observer: Dallas author Sarah Hepola on memoir, Blackout: 'It's my story, but I'm not alone.'">"It's my story, but I'm not alone."</a>
<blockquote>"...the longer you walk into sobriety, the more how you see yourself shifts, your memories shift. What does that mean? Are you remembering it more clearly? Or worse with more distance? As a personal essay writer, I have these really specific memories of my life that I can use as material, and here is a place where there is just a blank space. People know more about your life than you do, which is the weird thing that drinkers get into where they're so detached and distanced from their own activity and also the damage they do to other people. It just seemed to me that it was a really interesting way to talk about memory, the faulty mechanism of the mind but also the beautiful machine of the mind, and this weird thing that drinking, something that is celebrated across our culture, that is legal after the age of 21, but socially acceptable from the age of more or less 17 on, can give you amnesia, and nobody talks about it."</blockquote>
<strong>Vogue</strong>: <a href="http://www.vogue.com/13275590/sarah-hepola-blackout/" title="Vogue: A New Memoir Explores a Taboo Subject: Blackout Drinking">A New Memoir Explores a Taboo Subject: Blackout Drinking</a>
<strong>NPR Weekend Edition</strong>: <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/06/21/415748050/after-years-of-blackouts-a-writer-remembers-what-she-drank-to-forget" title="NPR: After Years Of Blackouts, A Writer Remembers What She 'Drank To Forget'">After Years Of Blackouts, A Writer Remembers What She 'Drank To Forget'</a>
<strong>She Knows</strong>: <a href="http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/1088060/blackout-author-sarah-hepola-interview" title="She Knows: Author Sarah Hepola talks women and drinking habits, and why we hide it">Author Sarah Hepola talks women and drinking habits, and why we hide it</a> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.151058Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:37:39 -0800divined by radioFKINhttp://www.metafilter.com/149390/FKIN
<a href="http://www.fkinonline.com">Fucking Inappropriate.</a> <em>No matter what I do, it always ends this way. The money gets spent. The whiskey runs out. The hangover always comes, and the show is always over.</em> TW for graphic discussion of combat, PTSD, pretty much everything war-related. Examples:
<a href="http://www.fuckinginappropriate.com/2014/08/30/the-long-dark-road/"> The Long Dark Road</a>
<a href="http://www.fuckinginappropriate.com/2015/04/21/easier-to-die/"> Easier to Die</a>
<a href="http://www.fuckinginappropriate.com/2014/01/03/weak-at-heart/"> Weak at Heart</a> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.149390Tue, 05 May 2015 12:05:04 -0800mrbigmusclesThe irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymoushttp://www.metafilter.com/148070/The%2Dirrationality%2Dof%2DAlcoholics%2DAnonymous
<em>Its faith-based 12-step program dominates treatment in the United States. But researchers have debunked central tenets of AA doctrine and found dozens of other treatments more effective.</em><br><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/03/the-irrationality-of-alcoholics-anonymous/386255/?google_editors_picks=true">Gabrielle Glaser explores alcohol-use disorder treatment of many types in a lengthy (quite lengthy) article for The Atlantic.</a> <blockquote>The Finns are famously private, so I had to go early in the morning, before any patients arrived, to meet Jukka Keski-Pukkila, the CEO. He poured coffee and showed me around the clinic, in downtown Helsinki. The most common course of treatment involves six months of cognitive behavioral therapy, a goal-oriented form of therapy, with a clinical psychologist. Treatment typically also includes a physical exam, blood work, and a prescription for naltrexone or nalmefene, a newer opioid antagonist approved in more than two dozen countries. When I asked how much all of this cost, Keski-Pukkila looked uneasy. "Well," he told me, "it's 2,000 euros." That's about $2,500—a fraction of the cost of inpatient rehab in the United States, which routinely runs in the tens of thousands of dollars for a 28-day stay.
When I told Keski-Pukkila this, his eyes grew wide. "What are they doing for that money?" he asked. I listed some of the treatments offered at top-of-the-line rehab centers: equine therapy, art therapy, mindfulness mazes in the desert. "That doesn't sound scientific," he said, perplexed. I didn't mention that some bare-bones facilities charge as much as $40,000 a month and offer no treatment beyond AA sessions led by minimally qualified counselors.</blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.148070Wed, 18 Mar 2015 01:10:05 -0800hippybearThe Debt? (trigger warning)http://www.metafilter.com/146448/The%2DDebt%2Dtrigger%2Dwarning
<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2013/02/abusive_parents_what_do_grown_children_owe_the_mothers_and_fathers_who_made.single.html">"In an essay in the New York Times, psychiatrist Richard Friedman writes that the relationship of adults to their abusive parents 'gets little, if any, attention in standard textbooks</a> or in the psychiatric literature.' But Rochelle is not alone. I have been hearing from people in her position for years, adult children weighing whether to reconnect with parents who nearly ruined their lives. Sometimes it's a letter writer such as 'Comfortably Numb' who has cut off contact with a parent but is now being pressured by family members, and even a spouse, to reconcile and forgive. Sometimes a correspondent, like 'Her Son,' has hung on to a thread of a relationship, but is now fearful of being further yoked emotionally or financially to a declining parent." [SLSlate] (Trigger warning for descriptions of abuse.) tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.146448Sun, 25 Jan 2015 10:09:19 -0800joseph conrad is fully awesomeThe internal threats of Stephen King's bookshttp://www.metafilter.com/143980/The%2Dinternal%2Dthreats%2Dof%2DStephen%2DKings%2Dbooks
<a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/why-horror-stephen-kings-words-dont-translate-well-210403">The closest a film has ever come to adapting King's internal-horror aesthetic is a film King himself has publicly lambasted: Kubrick's version of <i>The Shining</i>.</a> It's the most artful, scary, and beautifully directed of the King adaptations, and even excludes some of the novel's more overt (and potentially silly) visual elements, such as the hedge animals that come to life and stalk the family in the yard. Yet, the film never tackles the serious human horrors that infect Jack Torrance throughout the novel, specifically his alcoholism, along with the themes of cyclical abuse and mounting financial pressure. King's criticism of the film is that Torrance, as played by Jack Nicholson, is portrayed as unhinged right from the start, whereas the novel slowly unravels the man's sanity, the haunted house he occupies pushing him deeper into madness and violence. Part of the AV Club's <a href="http://www.avclub.com/search?tags=horrors-week">A Week of Horrors</a> series for Halloween. tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.143980Tue, 28 Oct 2014 08:20:02 -0800joseph conrad is fully awesomeEverybody say, "Is he all right?" And everybody say, "What's he like?"http://www.metafilter.com/143204/Everybody%2Dsay%2DIs%2Dhe%2Dall%2Dright%2DAnd%2Deverybody%2Dsay%2DWhats%2Dhe%2Dlike
"<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/09/scandals-of-classic-hollywood-montgomery-clift"><i>Scandals of Classic Hollywood</i>: The Long Suicide of Montgomery Clift</a>" by Anne Helen Petersen for <i>Vanity Fair</i>. (Warning: graphic description of car accident in the link.) <blockquote>"Montgomery Clift had the most earnest of faces: big, pleading eyes, a set jaw, and the sort of immaculate side part we haven't seen since. He played the desperate, the drunken, and the deceived, and the trajectory of his life was as tragic as that in any of his films. A car crash in the prime of his career left him in constant pain, and he drank himself to an early death, creating an aesthetic of suffering that has guided the way we think about him today. But for 12 years, he set Hollywood aflame.
"From the start, Clift was framed as a rebel and an individual. When he first arrived in Hollywood, he didn't sign a contract, waiting until after the success of his first two films to negotiate a three-picture deal with Paramount that allowed him total discretion over projects. It was unheard of, especially for a young star, but it was a seller's market. If Paramount wanted him, they'd have to give him what he wanted—a power differential that would go on to structure the star-studio relationship for the next 40 years."</blockquote>
Previously: <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/129427/disposable">[disposable]</a> tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.143204Tue, 30 Sep 2014 12:30:25 -0800joseph conrad is fully awesomeOne Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer x3. And then one other thing, too.http://www.metafilter.com/143084/One%2DBourbon%2DOne%2DScotch%2DOne%2DBeer%2Dx3%2DAnd%2Dthen%2Done%2Dother%2Dthing%2Dtoo
Washington Post's Wonkblog, leveraging data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) and economics and public policy professor Philip J. Cook's "Paying the Tab" looks at how much Americans drink. 30% of Americans don't drink at all. Another 30% consume fewer than one drink per week. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/25/think-you-drink-a-lot-this-chart-will-tell-you/?hpid=z5">To be in the top 10% of American, you'd need to drink the equivalent of 74 drinks per week, every week, or a little over 10 drinks per day.</a> tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.143084Fri, 26 Sep 2014 09:04:37 -08002bucksplusThe Fart Party Really Stinkshttp://www.metafilter.com/135664/The%2DFart%2DParty%2DReally%2DStinks
Cartoonist <a href="http://www.juliawertz.com/">Julia Wertz</a> reflects on the years she spent consumed by alcoholism and depression, <a href="http://narrative.ly/so-funny-it-hurts/the-fart-party-really-stinks/">via comics and prose.</a> [<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/111732/I-want-Carl-Kasells-voice-on-my-home-answering-machine-too">Previously</a>] "My theory is that since the best comedy often springs from tragedy, cynicism, sarcasm and misanthropy, those who excel in comedy usually come from a background comprised of those events and character defects."
The title refers to a previous incarnation of her autobio comic, published online and in print as <a href="http://www.juliawertz.com/2011/03/23/fart-party-vol-1/">Fart Party.</a> A selection of those older strips can still be read in her archives <a href="http://www.juliawertz.com/category/fart-party-vol-1-samples/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.juliawertz.com/category/fart-party-vol-2-samples/">here</a>.
<strong>(Please note: this essay and her comics talk frankly about suicidal thoughts, depression and alcoholism.)</strong> tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.135664Wed, 15 Jan 2014 09:45:09 -0800Narrative PrioritiesWhy I Feel OK About Falling Off The Wagon After Years Of Sobrietyhttp://www.metafilter.com/135294/Why%2DI%2DFeel%2DOK%2DAbout%2DFalling%2DOff%2DThe%2DWagon%2DAfter%2DYears%2DOf%2DSobriety
<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/joeberkowitz/why-i-feel-okay-about-falling-off-the-wagon-after-years-of-s">My elevator pitch for ending sobriety had been "moderate social drinking without ever blacking out again."</a> tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.135294Fri, 03 Jan 2014 06:35:30 -0800KittehAmsterdam pays alcoholics in beer to clean streetshttp://www.metafilter.com/134105/Amsterdam%2Dpays%2Dalcoholics%2Din%2Dbeer%2Dto%2Dclean%2Dstreets
The day begins at around 9:00 am, with the workers drinking two beers and some coffee, if desired, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iTgUt7mf2zJ-FSVl75RXKWk91oow?docId=a5f6846d-8252-4f3c-b1ef-3a58fec87a60">before going to clean the streets</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2013:site.134105Fri, 22 Nov 2013 08:23:30 -0800hereticfigInspiration for Imbibationhttp://www.metafilter.com/133541/Inspiration%2Dfor%2DImbibation
Some genius realized <a href="http://dangerousminds.net/comments/motivational_fitness_mottos_paired_with_images_of_alcoholism">two great tastes that go together</a> are Motivational Phrases and Alcohol Posters. tag:metafilter.com,2013:site.133541Tue, 05 Nov 2013 08:42:27 -0800symbioidHow I Met My Dead Parentshttp://www.metafilter.com/127246/How%2DI%2DMet%2DMy%2DDead%2DParents
<blockquote>Going through my parents' stuff didn't make me suddenly miss them, but I became more intrigued by them every day. I wanted to know more and more about them, to solve their mysteries. At the same time, I felt a corresponding, if conflicting, urge to speak, or write, about what many people seemed to think was unspeakable: my ever-present lack of grief. So I decided to combine these seemingly divergent impulses into an Tumblr blog called <a href="http://www.mydeadparents.tumblr.com/">My Dead Parents</a>, which I kept anonymous both out of respect for my family and because, after years of writing fiction, I wasn't sure if I could handle revealing so much about myself in writing.</blockquote> Anya Yurchyshyn <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/anyayurchyshyn/how-i-met-my-dead-parents">writes about rediscovering</a> her parents through their letters, after their deaths. tag:metafilter.com,2013:site.127246Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:43:53 -0800the man of twists and turnsBarbet Schroeder's "Barfly"http://www.metafilter.com/119945/Barbet%2DSchroeders%2DBarfly
<a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19870210/PEOPLE/812229998">Roger Ebert</a> on the set of <a href="http://vimeo.com/36183543"><em>Barfly</em></a>. Cannon Films' Menahem Golan said that Barbet Schroeder threatened to cut off his own finger if he did not receive financing for the film. In Charles Bukowski's novel about the making of the movie, <em>Hollywood</em>, which is dedicated to Schroeder, he has Schroeder saying:
<em><a href="http://www.barbetschroeder.com/movies/barfly-1987/">It is 80% true</a> but: 1) It was never my intention to cut more than the end of the left little finger. I just did not have the time to go to a lawyer, that is why I had to choose the firm Black &amp; Decker. 2) My plan was to do eventually do a press conference holding the finger and then go to the hospital to try to have it sewn up again.</em> tag:metafilter.com,2012:site.119945Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:27:25 -0800Egg Shen28 seconds. Living to write about it.http://www.metafilter.com/119156/28%2Dseconds%2DLiving%2Dto%2Dwrite%2Dabout%2Dit
<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/08/20/michael-bryant-interview-28-seconds.html">Ex Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant</a> (<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/84664/Former-Ontario-Attorney-General-Michael-Bryant-involved-in-death-">previously</a><a href="http://www.metafilter.com/84732/Bike-vs-Cars-War"> previously</a> <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/92247/Bryant-Gets-Away-With-Killing-Bicyclist">previously</a>)<a href="http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670066445,00.html"> reveals struggle with alcoholism, and his thoughts on cyclist's death in new memoir, 28 Seconds</a>. <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/popupaudio.html?clipIds=2270990430">CBC radio "The Current" interview</a>, and <a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/michael-bryant-relives-deadly-encounter-with-cyclist-in-28-seconds-1.923221">CTV tv interview</a>. Allan Sheppard, the deceased's father, asks people <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/08/21/darcy-allan-sheppard-father.html">to scrutinize Bryant's story</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2012:site.119156Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:15:21 -0800kneecappedIt Ain't All Pizzas and Creamhttp://www.metafilter.com/118253/It%2DAint%2DAll%2DPizzas%2Dand%2DCream
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7204187@N03/sets/72157625750612325/with/7585153442/">'Everyone Has a Name' Project</a> <i>Everyone has a name. And everyone has a story. This photo project is dedicated to promoting dignity and to enlightening society's view of the homeless.</i> A project by Charlie O'Hay. <blockquote><a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/07/whachu-lookin-at.html">People sometimes ask how I convince the homeless to let me photograph them. Of course "the homeless" represents a large and diverse group, and some individuals in fact do not allow me to take their portrait. Others allow me to photo their hands or backs, but not their faces. Some have told me they're concerned about outstanding warrants, and I respect that. But even with those few exceptions, I have found street people to be generally receptive to a portrait and a few moments of conversation. Oddly, it's the working stiffs who give me the most trouble.</a></blockquote>
Charles O'Hay's <a href="http://www.pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr">blog</a> of <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/02/disconnected.html">cynical</a>, <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/01/jan-29.html">wry</a> humor and <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/07/old-spice.html">blunt realities</a> includes <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/01/january-february-mortuary.html">poems</a>, stories of his life as a <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2011/07/july-14-2011-on-sobriety.html">recovering alcoholic</a>, a <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/07/quills.html">parent</a>, an <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/02/nobody-likes-an-atheist.html">atheist</a> and a <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/06/the-girl-next-door.html">poet</a>, and happenstance <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/03/scumbag.html">meetings</a> with <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/02/a-pair-of-aces.html">people</a> on the <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2011/12/fight-the-voices.html">streets</a> of Philadelphia <a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/07/arthur.html">over the years</a>.
<blockquote><a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2011/10/everyone-has-a-name-disassembling-the-distance.html">People sometimes ask me, "How do you talk to the homeless?" "With my voice," I say.</a></blockquote>
Some examples of portraits and short stories:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7204187@N03/6057136832/">Lemuel</a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7204187@N03/5596317589/">David</a> - <i>Imagine living on a cash job, week to week, no savings, and the job disappears. Then the apartment goes with it. Where would you go?</i>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7204187@N03/5173783924/">Bob</a> - <i>Bob wanted to see his portrait after I'd taken it. "<strong>It's been years since anyone's taken my picture</strong>," he said.</i>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7204187@N03/5374063634/">Ian and John</a> -<em> Ian told me to be sure to get his name on this image. I said, "<strong>That's the whole point of the project. To put names to the faces of the homeless.</strong>"</em>
<a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2012/07/killer.html">Tommy</a> - <i> ... "I killed 57 gooks in Vietnam," ... </i>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7204187@N03/5947403243/">Joseph</a> - <i> ... I had given Joseph a buck and was about to walk away when he said, "Alcoholic." with a shrug. "Me too," I said, "15 years sober." ...</i>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7204187@N03/6101150208/">Gail</a> - <i>Gail's 26YO husband was diagnosed 9 months ago with Lymphoma. ...</i>
<a href="http://pizzasandcream.typepad.com/it_aint_all_pizzas_and_cr/2011/08/this-is-chelsea.html">This is Chelsea</a> (NYC)
A portion of all profits from Charlie's book of poems, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/146636274X/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/">Far From Luck</a>, will be donated to <a href="http://www.projecthome.org">Project H.O.M.E.</a> in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(Previous similar projects: <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/108057/RIP-Bob">Bob Arihood</a>, <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/110593/25-Incredibly-Detailed-Black-And-White-Portraits-of-the-Homeless-by-Lee-Jeffries">Lee Jeffries</a>, <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/98839/Young-gay-and-homeless-in-LA-County">LA County</a>, <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/88205/What-Do-They-Keep">Church Under The Bridge</a>, <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/51756/A-film-on-homeless-veterans">When I Came Home</a>) tag:metafilter.com,2012:site.118253Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:44:15 -0800jillithdProhibitionhttp://www.metafilter.com/117655/Prohibition
<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-alcohol-20120707,0,5211937.story">Iran confronts its alcohol problem.</a> 'After years of denying the prevalence of illegal alcohol in Iran, officials are addressing the issue, while continuing to treat drinking as a sin and a crime.' 'Recently, two men in a northeastern province were given rare death sentences for drinking, as part of the country's three-strikes law. Each man had been convicted of drinking twice before.' 'More than 200,000 people in Iran are estimated to be involved in bootlegging, and about $800 million is spent annually on smuggling. The country's leading economic newspaper this year quoted border police as saying that the amount of confiscated alcohol had risen 69% in the last year.'
'In Iran, drinking has long been a deeply rooted part of Persian society, from the upper-class elite who hold discreet parties in their Tehran apartments to the blue-collar workers who drink the sometimes toxic homemade brews. The Islamic Revolution in 1979 attempted to squelch the custom, as part of a greater effort to erase the Persian culture in favor of an Islamic one.'
'Today, young people are increasingly turning to alcohol as an escape from their lives, which they feel are boxed in politically, socially and economically.'
'Alcohol's health toll in Iran is worsened because many people can't afford to buy what's smuggled in. A bottle of French wine can go for about $40, whereas a bottle of Iran-made alcohol sells for less than $6.
Many rely on what's made in people's basements or gardens in unsanitary conditions. While drinking or making the alcohol, people have suffered from alcohol poisoning, blindness or death. The alcohol content of the homemade liquor is often higher than normal, supplemented with drugs or contaminated.'
'"In the absence of other forms of leisure and amusement'", says Shahin, a sociologist, '"drinking alcoholic beverages is a way to vent your disappointment at the country's injustice, lack of jobs and decent life and future, and political disappointment."' tag:metafilter.com,2012:site.117655Sat, 07 Jul 2012 11:22:58 -0800VikingSword